Just as state and national rail experts prepare to converge on Ventura for a three-day conference on the promise of train travel, Ventura County Transportation Commission members are mulling over the complexity of getting a modest commuter-friendly rail service between here and Santa Barbara.

The conference, titled A Railroad Runs Through It, begins Monday and focuses on rail corridors.

Among the speakers are Ventura City Councilman Bill Fulton and Moorpark City Councilman Keith Millhouse.

Both men sit on the VCTC and a week ago heard a presentation on a plan to tweak the schedule of existing Amtrak trains by about an hour to accommodate commuters heading from Ventura to Santa Barbara each day.

While the idea, presented by officials from Santa Barbara County and their consultant Sharon Greene, sounded simple enough, there are obstacles to making even this modest step.

"I'm saying look, it's not as easy as saying we're going to run a train at this hour up to Santa Barbara,' " said Millhouse, who also serves on the board of Metrolink, the commuter rail service that serves Los Angeles and four surrounding counties including Ventura. "I just think this all needs a dose of realism."

Millhouse worries that tweaking the Amtrak schedule for trains leaving Los Angeles to accommodate commuters going to Santa Barbara, could muck up the schedule for Metrolink trains going south from Ventura on that same single-track line. He compared the problem with trying to go up the escalator at Dodger Stadium for the next day's game, while everyone else is trying leave.

"I believe we need more rail and more rail lines, but I'm concerned about throwing off the schedule (of the Metrolink trains)," he said.

The Metrolink rail line that connects Ventura County to Los Angeles County continues to grow with almost 2,000 riders a day on that line. Because the Amtrak trains that travel the route from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo have a bad on-time record, Millhouse worries one late train leaving Los Angeles could throw off the whole schedule for commuters going south.

And while Santa Barbara County officials have said that with no added costs, infrastructure or trains and a slight change in the schedule, area commuters could have a rail option going north within two years, he isn't convinced.

"I just don't want to over-promise and have people disappointed when it doesn't happen," he said.

But the consultant working on the effort believes tweaking the times may require a lot of juggling, but it is doable. Moving up departure of the northbound train from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. would accommodate a train leaving from Ventura at 7:50 a.m. and arriving in Santa Barbara at 8:30. Under the current schedule the soonest a northbound commuter could get to Santa Barbara is 10:11 a.m.

The discussions of rail times brings up a lot of other obstacles. The track is owned and operated by Union Pacific in Omaha.

The company's priority is freight, and historically it has been reluctant to accommodate other uses. As for Amtrak, it is not supposed to run commuter train service. There's also the issue of fares — a ticket from Ventura to Santa Barbara is $16.

Still, many commuters and officials in Santa Barbara have been pushing for "a lane and a train" to deal with growing congestions on Highway 101 between Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. That plan envisions widening Highway 101 in both directions and providing rail service for the estimated 20,000 people driving north each day.

With several large highway projects now getting under way along the route, congestion is likely to get worse in the coming years.

Darren Kettle, executive director of the county's Transportation Commission, said more study was needed on Santa Barbara's commuter-friendly rail proposal.